Rafael Benitez says Newcastle need to learn quickly from mistakes

By Richard Cooke

Rafael Benitez is demanding a quick response from his team to the mistakes they made at Cardiff

Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez says his side have to learn quickly from the mistakes they made in the goalless draw at Cardiff.

Midfielder Kenedy escaped punishment over an off-the-ball challenge on Victor Camarasa and later missed a penalty in time added on.

In between substitute Isaac Hayden was sent off for a rash tackle on Josh Murphy as Newcastle finished the game with ten men.

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Speaking ahead of Sunday's game against Chelsea live on Sky Sports, Benitez said: "Always you are disappointed when you think that you can win a game especially if it is a penalty in the last minute.

"But imagine if we pick another player to do the same and he misses the penalty. We will be talking about this one or that one but it is still the same situation. At the end we lost two points and we were nearly there.

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"You have to think you have another chance. Maybe next time we have to take the penalty in another way, maybe next time we have to score a couple of goals before.

"We have to learn quickly and you have to be ready for the next game to do the right things.

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Image: Kenedy was lucky to escape unpunished for a kick - and later missed a penalty

Benitez revealed he has spoken to Kenedy, who is on loan at St James' Park for the season from Chelsea, and said the player had responded well.

"In terms of his quality he is very confident so we were talking about that and the decisions that he was making during the game," the Newcastle boss added.

"It is something that is important for a young player to understand, to learn and then to move forward.

"He is fine now, he has been training well. It has been a bad experience but a good experience in the end.

Benitez refused to discuss his contract situation at Newcastle and insisted he had more important things on his mind.

"We will wait and then we can talk in the future about that. My contract is not an issue. The issue at the moment is to improve the team as much as we can."

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